


The World Doesn't End In The Blink Of An Eye

by Hadrian_Pendragons



Series: Yusentai [1]
Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: I ot3 this so hard, being petrified has some side effects, i don't even know what to tag, i wrote this at like three am while nearly falling asleep over my keyboard, just take it, no mention of tsukasa though it takes place over the first few episodes, yusentai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-07-31 12:42:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20115274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hadrian_Pendragons/pseuds/Hadrian_Pendragons
Summary: Three thousand and seven hundred years was a long, long time. They wouldn't let it stop them. No amount of time was going to make them falter. They'd take those years lost to darkness and put them to good use.





	The World Doesn't End In The Blink Of An Eye

**Author's Note:**

> I really did write this at like 3 am, I don't know. Here you go.

Side effects to the petrification were only natural.

It _ had _ been three thousand and seven hundred years. He _ had _ been in darkness the entirety of those millenia, training himself to be hyper-aware of his own consciousness. He _ had not _been given any external stimuli whatsoever.

_ One, two, three, four… _

But spacing out for hours, perched vulnerably on a tree branch where any beast that crossed his path could make him their next meal?

_ … five, six, seven, eight… _

Unacceptable.

He breathes deeply. His lungs expand. His blood pumps faster. The palms of his hands flex against rough and rigid bark, sensation foreign to him now.

He forces his eyes to focus.

_ … nine, ten, eleven, twelve… _

And he remembers where he is.

The world had moved on without them. Despite them, even.

_ But humankind will always find a way. _

He nods and stays on the branch. He watches the sun settle through the trees, golden rays taking the warmth of daylight with them. Thirty-four days. Two million, nine hundred and thirty seven thousand, six hundred seconds… give or take.

He needed to get back to the lab.

Senkuu climbs down the tree cautiously, his small stone axe in hand as he considers the chattering wildlife and growing nightfall. The chirping of summer insects manages to drive away the unnerving memory of darkness.

He ignores the tick of numbers in the back of his mind.

There isn’t any time to waste.

* * *

Taiju doesn’t know much about science.

He tried his best to understand it when Senkuu taught him, and he always made an effort to remember, but it didn’t stick as well as physical instructions. Watching and repeating Senkuu’s actions somehow taught him more, even if he didn’t understand exactly what was happening.

He didn’t think he would ever know much about science.

But he knew that he didn’t need to be a scientist to notice that neither of them were acting like they had before.

He saw it in Senkuu’s pauses. In the far away eyes and steady mutter of numbers under frantic breaths. In the bags that made crimson eyes stand out far too much and the amount of concentration that went into work and _ only _work. Work to find out what would break the world free.

He saw it in himself, too. Taiju knew he was working a lot. Scavenging, lifting, running, climbing, whatever Senkuu needed from him. He couldn’t close his eyes at night, the darkness too _ familiar. _The closest he could ever manage was a hazy doze while his mind ran in circles.

_ I have to see Yuzuriha. I hope Senkuu is okay. I can’t fall asleep. _

True _ sleep _ was something he fought. He would wake up, screaming everything he knew about his two best friends in his mind, that he had to _ see them again, _despite one being not feet away from him.

That’s what he’s done for thousands of years, in that darkness, struggling every second to break free. He knew Senkuu had done it, too. Counted the entire time. 

Their bodies had woken up the same— or maybe even better— than they had three thousand and seven hundred years ago, but…

Things weren’t the same. It wasn’t just the world that had changed.

One of those sleepless nights had them testing another batch of formula well past dark. Taiju looks up that night to see Senkuu sitting in the doorway, once more far away. Half-asleep, maybe, but not relaxed at all. His body was rigid, back straight, arms crossed, and he stared off into the night without so much as a twitch.

Senkuu was still. Like a statue.

_ “... one thousand five hundred and seventy-seven. One thousand five hundred and seventy-eight…” _

Taiju frowns. He stands, shuffles across the floor, and sits next to Senkuu, bumping their shoulders as he did. He doesn’t say anything. Speaking had never helped before, no matter how loud he got— but Senkuu always knew what was going through his mind, anyway.

Taiju listens, instead. 

To the building numbers— larger this time, and he wonders how long they’ve been at the front of Senkuu’s mind tonight, but the math just makes his head hurt.

To the sounds of nature— and it’s almost like hearing the world for the first time, like it must have been before cities and people. 

Senkuu wanted to bring civilization back. Taiju didn’t think that was wrong at all.

But he wonders if things could ever be exactly the same.

_ Probably not. _

Senkuu had thought of this already, though. Taiju was certain of that. He could never doubt that Senkuu would do everything in his power to bring back the world as they knew it. Bring it back even better, in that Senkuu way that made him smile.

A tired sigh draws him out of his listening, interrupting the muttering. Taiju looks over to catch Senkuu glance at him before the scientist scrubs a hand down his face. Taiju doesn’t really feel like the numbers are gone. Just like he knows he doesn’t stop thinking about Yuzuriha, or worrying about Senkuu.

“I suppose expecting to be completely fine after the literal apocalypse is too much to ask?” Senkuu says, a light laugh on his lips.

“We’ve just got to keep going!” Taiju throws his arms above his head in an attempt to shake his own lethargy away. “We’ve gotta save everyone, right?”

Senkuu hums and pulls his hand away from his face, “We should at least try to rest our bodies, first. Even if we can’t rest our brains. We won’t be any good to anyone if we collapse before we find the right solution.”

“You’ve gotta be super tired, Senkuu. I don’t use my brain nearly as much as you do!”

Senkuu laughs and stands, cracking his neck. “Get up, Big Oaf, it’s way past curfew.”

Taiju smiles at him and stands. He follows Senkuu up the ladder to the treehouse, and both of them settle in for the night.

It wasn’t better, exactly, but Taiju thought that maybe, one day, they could figure out how to rest, too.

Senkuu was capable of a lot of things, after all.

* * *

Yuzuriha hadn’t known the darkness for long.

She wasn’t like Senkuu or Taiju. Desires or willpower to fight it off for thousands of years weren’t something she could muster in herself. She doesn’t know exactly how long she _ had _ remained aware, but it had been long enough to know that facing that darkness was, with absolute certainty, _ terrifying _.

She doesn’t think she can comprehend how long that was for them.

She can see how it weighs them down. An entire world on their shoulders, alongside the future of humanity, with the backing of millenia of determination to push them forward— but it never let them stop, never let them rest, and pushing them far beyond the point they should have run themselves into the ground.

And she doesn’t know what to do about it, besides remind them when they need to stop.

She stares through the canopy of branches and leaves. A brilliant night sky, like she’d only seen in photographs before. Deep purple and blue that leaked out like colored water from the diamonds of starlight raining from the edge of the Milky Way.

She thinks it’s beautiful.

Three thousand and seven hundred years of darkness to see a sky this beautiful.

An unbelievable amount of time.

Senkuu and Taiju both knew that time. They were awake for all of it, for better or worse. She bites her lip and knows that there isn’t anything she can do to help except be there.

“We’re going to build the world back up from scratch,” she says. Out in the air, with the stars as witness, it sounds absolutely crazy, but…

“Of course! With your skills and Senkuu’s brain and my brawn, we can do it!”

“That _ was _the plan. Though it’s gonna take a planet’s worth of hard work.”

… her boys _ were _as crazy as they came.

She smiles, giggles, and nods, and her worries seem to ease. “We’ll do it together, then.”

Yuzuriha might not know the burden they carried, or how she could possibly lift it from their shoulders, but one thing was certain.

She wouldn’t ever let them carry it alone.

For the two she knew like the back of her hand, she would do anything.

It was going to take more than three thousand and seven hundred years to tear that bond apart.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts on my after midnight ramble? I love these three so much, tbh.
> 
> Edited: 2/4/2020


End file.
